Year: 2012

Location: Venice, Italy

Country: Italy

Owner Builder: Magistrato Alle Acque Per Le Province Venete E Di Mantova

Contractor: Impresa Mantovani

Designer: Consorzio Venezia Nuova

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Problem / Solution

MOSE (MOdulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico, Experimental Electromechanical Module) is a project intended to protect the city of Venice, Italy, and the Venetian Lagoon from flooding. The project is an integrated system consisting of rows of mobile gates installed at the Lido, Malamocco and Chioggia inlets that are able to temporarily isolate the Venetian Lagoon from the Adriatic Sea during high tides. Together with other measures such as coastal reinforcement, the raising of quaysides, and the paving and improvement of the lagoon, MOSE is designed to protect Venice and the lagoon from tides of up to 3 metres. The floodgates, the overall number of 78, are accommodated within special pontoons that are transported from the area of the construction site until their final position.

Experience

Strength, lightness and durability.

Why expanded clay?

Because of the important dimensions of pontoons, long about 70 m, about 36 m wide and high about 8.70 m, the weight of each individual element (about 18,000 t) is decisive for their flotation, necessary for their transport from the area of the construction site to the bottom of the harbor mouth. The lightweight technical solution could not be separated from the component strength, necessary to implement the general static functions; then the aim of the designers was to identify a concrete mix that could combine lightness and resistance. The Lightweight concrete was used for the construction of some pontoons for the structure of the boxes (density about 1800 kg/m3 and average compressive strenght about 35 MPa) and for the construction of internal galleries into the pontoons, two per element, place in work in the thickness of about 40 cm to the entire length (approximately 60 m) through pneumatic pumping to facilitate and speed up the executive activities (density lower than 1500 kg/m3 and average cubic compression greater than 18 MPa).